This puzzle:

Some people seem to judge puzzles by the 'worst' answers in the grid. For me these would be SAT I (which isn't used anymore), KNT, ... read more

Some people seem to judge puzzles by the "worst" answers in the grid. For me these would be SAT I (which isn't used anymore), KNT, GE'S, ENT, and NONNA. But to me a puzzle should be judged as a whole. This one has, amazingly, eight theme answers, interlocking no less, plus an "explainer" at 54A. That's pretty fancy constructing. RAIN HAT, SUNBATH, BIG IDEA, and IT'LL DO are pretty nice, too.

Jeff Chen notes:

Impressive to have so much theme density (phrases containing NBA across words), with each themer crossing another. Fancy work from ... read more

Impressive to have so much theme density (phrases containing NBA across words), with each themer crossing another. Fancy work from Paula, who incorporated some very snazzy phrases. Checking onelook.com, there seem to be a lot of options available for the *N BA* pattern, so Paula did well to select what she did. It almost felt like a themeless, uncovering such goodness as KEVIN BACON and PINBALL and SUNBATH all throughout the grid.

It may not be apparent how tough this construction is, but it's a real challenge. Any time you have crossing themers, filling around those entries becomes tricky. Yes, Paula had the flexibility to switch out themers if the surrounding fill got too gritty, but she still had to fill cleanly around four separate sets of crossing themers ... and then make sure they all connected. Very hard to execute on, and she even managed to throw in entries like BIG IDEA and DESPOT as she linked her subsections.

I would have loved to see NBA as the last answer. It usually feels inelegant to me when the revealer is in a strange location, but there are no hard and fast rules about this. I can see how difficult NBA would have been to incorporate into the very SE, considering the crossing themers in that section. As always, there are so many trade-offs in puzzle construction.

Will brings up a good point about the trend to judge a puzzle by its worst answers. I enjoyed all the theme density, but understand how people could find the trade-off not favorable. I don't think any of the entries are terrible, but hitting SAT I right off the bat felt clunky to me. Was it worth the theme interlock up there? I think so, but I could see how people would see otherwise. Anyway, these are subjective calls.